I've had my 2012 Laredo X for just over 1 year and 19,000 miles. I've had it back to the dealer for 1 problem. The radio quit working after a week. It was replaced after being ordered and I have had no other issues since. It still runs good, is quiet and tight with no squeeks or rattles, and has no obvious signs of wear. Well except the tires but they are wearing evenly and not at an abnormal rate. I installed Weathertech floorliners and a Jeep cargo liner a couple weeks after purchase so I cant comment on floor mat wear.

I bought the V6 because I didn't want to suffer the fuel mileage penalty of the V8. The V6 has done most everything I have asked of it. It's no torque monster like my Dodge/Cummins I traded in on it but for most of my needs it does well. I do approximately 50/50 highway/city driving and average right around 19 hand calculated mpg. I have only driven longer trips when towing a trailer so I dont have any real interstate mpg figures. I can say that towing my 5X10 utility trailer with a total weight of around 1500 -1600 pounds the Lie-O Meter was reading 14.5 mpg on a recent trip from MD to NC and TN and back. The L-O-M usually reads around 1-1 1/2mpg high for me. I did do 1 trip without a trailer to Ocean City MD from here but that trip has traffic and red lights. I showed around 23 mpg on the L-O-M on that trip.

There are 2 things I don't like about the GC. The gas pedal is too close. It needs to be about an inch further away from me in relation to the other controls. I'm 5' 10" with a 32" inseam. Even with the seat all the way back the pedal is too close. When I'm in stop and go traffic, which is every day for me, I have to really pull my foot up to fully release the throttle. It's like an over-exaggeration of the normal motion. This causes the front of my lower leg to get tired/sore. It's really annoying. The second thing is yep... The transmission. The programming is horrible. It's bad enough around here in traffic where you cant accelerate smoothly. The trans wants to upshift each and every time you need to ease up on acceleration, then it bogs the engine when you try to re-accelerate. But it's even worse in the mountains on unfamiliar roads. Climb, enter a sharp curve, lift off the throttle a bit, upshift, bog, downshift. Over and over and over. I ended up having to manually shift it because every time it acted stupid I cussed and my wife was getting tired of hearing it. lol. One last thing. It's not a gripe because I cant blame the Jeep for being a little underpowered when towing up 7-9% grades when I bought the V6. But it will downshift 2 second gear at 70mph at times on steep grades with the cruise control on. It's screaming when it does that but still below redline. It will then upshift back to third.

Those are the only gripes in an otherwise fine vehicle. Now mind you it's not the top of the line model and I'm not comparing it to other high end vehicles like some of you may. For an average guy it does pretty well.

The last trip I took my Wrangler to Arizona, on the trip back I had headwinds the entire trip back and the motor spent 4-5 hours of that trip back at 4800RPM....continuously, without a hiccup. I won't mention tire size (not stock) or gear ratios since I would incriminate myself.

Glad to see your enjoying her. Like you I have a 2012 Laredo X 3.6. Had her for just over a year and half and I got over 26k miles already. All hiccup free. From New York and just recently took her on a 700 mile trip to Maine. Averaged just shy of 26 miles a gallon. Put a smile on my face. Love the positive stories.

I just caught the reference to the pedal, etc. Interestingly, I'm 5'11 with a 31" inseam and keep my seat as high as possible and not all the way back. (I find sitting that way much more comfortable than with a seat way down low) I do not feel any problem with the pedal placement in that respect.

On the shifting, there is a TSB available for both engines that helps with smoothing out the shifting. I just had it applied on my JGC last week and the difference was noticeable even just pulling out of the dealer lot.

My EVIC has proven to be pretty accurate...maybe because of my style of driving. In fact, it was lower than my actual in a recent 1000 mile trip by about a half MPG.